Brandy, I have answered it in the past, and if you care to notice, I am pretty much flying solo on this side of the death penalty topic. I have done synopsis to respond to everyone's posts as best I can.
First Brandy, to know that one of my loved ones were killed by a perpetrator would no doubt make me sad at the loss, shocked, and yes, angry.
Why would it be a good time to ask me if I wanted the death penalty or not? It would not be a good time, because my heart is overflowing with so many emotions at the time.
If I were to say yes while in distress, I might later regret it when some of my faculties for decision making come back.
Would you believe it Brandy? Some of the coalition that is heavily supporting SB3539 ARE FAMILIES OF MURDER VICTIMS!!!
That's right, mothers who have lost their kids, spouses that have lost their loved ones -- all signing a petition against the death penalty.
Read it for yourself and see that those who signed it know FIRSTHAND - the hypothetical question that Opinionated asked me and the hypothetical question that you accuse me of not answering.
Well for the people signing this petition, the question was NOT hypothetical, it really happened in their lives. They are people who now see that the Death Penalty is wrong and does not bring healing.
It is in my documents that if someone were to kill me, I would be against the perpetrator getting the death penalty. I might have to get that statement notarized someday - just to be safe.
Yup even if it affected my loved ones, I would not want to be forced to make that decision when I am distraught. And being myself within my senses, I would oppose the death penalty, even for the person who killed someone near and dear to me.
And one thing that everyone has to understand. Support for the death penalty is more of a desire for revenge than it is for sympathy for the victims.
I will not call everyone who supports the death penalty unsympathetic. However, some people tried to say that I only care for the perps and not the families. If I did not care for the family I would likely think that it was okay to put the family through more legal wranagling, and keep them on edge for the years the guy is sitting on death row.
But since I am sympathetic to the victims and their family, I think that a more just sentence is one that separates the perpetrator from society, and if it's pre-meditated murder and proven beyond a reasonable doubt, then it's for life with no parole.
This way, the family knows they are safe. There is no legal wrangling nor dragging them through appeal processes and reminding them over and over again. That in fact hinders the healing process.